Former Chairman Gary Harwood has denied in today's Cambridge Evening News that he and five other past and present directors of Cambridge United are still liable for the £4,000 per week rent on the Abbey Stadium.

As reported here last week [article], the club contacted the six guarantors to ask for their promised financial assistance with the rent payments to landlords Bideawhile 445 Ltd, the company which bought the ground in November 2004 and is co-owned by United's former Vice-Chairman John Howard.

In his response to the CEN on behalf of himself, Roger Hunt, Gerald Lowe and Richard Summerfield, Harwood claims their liabilities ended when they left the board of directors and added, "There are no guarantees from the 'former directors' to Cambridge United FC.

"Should Bideawhile decide to 'call' on those guarantees it would be a private and confidential matter between the former directors and Bideawhile and would not involve United."

Harwood also told the News that because five of the six guarantors are no longer directors of the club, "...the terms of their individual agreements with Bideawhile are no longer a matter of debate with Cambridge United FC."

Harwood's detailed Question & Answer session published on this website and in the matchday programme prior to the sale of the ground includes the following statement from then chairman Harwood, as he explained what the directors guarantees entailed:

'There may well come a time when I resign from the board, and whoever takes over my position on the board - or any other director's position on the board - will need to step in and take over that guarantee, so that will really test the commitment of directors on the board and their loyalty to the club.'

However major shareholder and director Paul Barry has stressed that the former directors failed to pass on their guarantees to the new directors.

"The director's guarantees were written, in our opinion, as guarantors to the lease. The current Board interprets those guarantors as to both the landlord and to the tenant, as made very clear in public official statements in November of 2004 by Gary Harwood, then Chairman," said Barry.

"It also states that the guarantor's assets would be seized ahead of the club's in case of non-payment.

"The guarantors were all directors at the time and it was expected that they would pass on their guarantee to an incoming director. It was the outgoing director's responsibility to effect that change of guarantor. None did so and therefore the guarantees remain with them personally. These items are clearly stated in the lease."

[United Call On Rent Guarantors]

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